Strain gauges based on piezo-resistance effect, are well known. Metal and alloy wires were used as an early form of strain gauge and more recently, thin sheets of metal or foil bonded to the surface of an object in which the strain is to be measured, or thin films evaporated onto the surface of such an object, or thin pieces of semiconductor material bonded onto such a surface have all been used. All of these devices are capable of providing accurate and repeatable indications of the magnitude of both tensile and compressive strain on the surface of an underlying supporting member. Such devices are widely used in the field of precision engineering for strain measurement or stress analysis or in the manufacture of high quality transducers such as load cells or force or pressure transducers for the measurement of force, pressure or weight. Sophisticated industrial weighing systems and weighing platforms and expensive weighing machines or scales used in trade or commerce are provided for by these known devices which can frequently measure to an accuracy of 0.1% or better under all required operating conditions. Such devices do not, however, provide a solution to the need for low cost simple forms of force (including load, weight or pressure) measuring transducers as are required in units such as kitchen or bathroom scales, or for simple industrial control purposes or various applications in machinery or, for example, in automobiles where accuracies and repeatabilities of the order of 1.0% would generally suffice.